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The Application Of Relevance Theory To Reading Comprehension In Senior English

Posted on:2009-01-29Degree:MasterType:Thesis
Country:ChinaCandidate:C Y ChenFull Text:PDF
GTID:2167360245957760Subject:Subject teaching
Abstract/Summary:PDF Full Text Request
Teaching of reading is one of the most important parts in Senior EFL class. Reading is thought to be the most effective and important channel of linguistic input by which learners can develop competence. However, in current senior English teaching, the teaching of basic vocabulary, grammar occupies most of the time of the English class. This "focusing on parts, ignoring the whole" reading model obstacles the learners' improvement in reading proficiency. In the past 50 years, research on reading comprehension has made remarkable improvement. With the development of reading theory and introduction of reading techniques, English reading teaching is being slowly shifted from "teaching languages points only " to "regarding teaching of reading as an interactive process", thus making us have a brief understanding of the reading properties. In spite of the improvement, student's lack of profound insights into the essence of reading comprehension. As the main function of learning a language is communication, the thesis writer attempts to view reading from another perspective and solve the relevant problems in the light of communicative theory, especially in the light of relevance theory.From Saussure's semiotics, Austin's Speech Act Theory, Grice's Cooperative Principle to Sperber and Wilson's Relevance Theory, communicative theory has experienced some important development stages. Since Sperber and Wilson first proposed Relevance Theory in the book Relevance: Communication and Cognition in 1986, it has been applied in various fields such as psychology, literature, translation and other branches of linguistics such as semantics, syntax, stylistics, rhetoric and discourse analysis. However, little research has been done in the application of the theory to reading comprehension, especially reading comprehension by Chinese senior students. In the process of teaching reading, the author discovers that relevance theory can make a profound explanation to reading comprehension. Based on the framework of relevance theory, the thesis analyzes the nature of reading comprehension as the following: Reading is a process of communication between the reader and the writer; a process of seeking optimal relevance on the part of the reader; a process of making inference from the ostension-inference communication.In order to assess the effects of the application of relevance theory to reading comprehension, the author conducts an experiment in an art class in branch of Wuhan No.2 Middle School, teaching them reading comprehension with input of relevance theory. The English level of these subjects is supposed to be intermediate and low. Through the five months of interview, pre-test, observation and post-test, the thesis comes to the conclusion that relevance theory plays positive roles for the most intermediate-level students in reading comprehension, especially in cultivating the students' inference ability in the specific context. But for the students of poor command of English, the result is not so satisfactory. This group of students lack of linguistic competence to make the best use of the theory. They are advised to read some easier materials to improve their linguistic competence and communicative competence as well.Finally, some suggestions are presented in answer to those current problems in reading comprehension.
Keywords/Search Tags:relevance theory, reading comprehension, inference ability, communicative competence
PDF Full Text Request
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